Wednesday, March 7, 2012

12.7 Not again!

SAITAMA [3/7/2012] — A visually-impaired man who fell from a platform onto train tracks in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, was hit and killed by a train, police said Wednesday.

According to police, the incident occurred at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. The man, who has been named as Akio Hashimoto, 62, was visually impaired and walked with a cane, Fuji TV reported.

Following the incident, station staff reviewed security camera footage and found that Hashimoto had been following textured paving blocks that act as a guide for the visually impaired, when he seemed to lose track of them. Searching for the correct route, station employees say the man fell off the platform onto the tracks and was subsequently struck by a train, Fuji reported.